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"There are moments in our buildings that people are really gravitating towards," says architect Alice Kimm with John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects. "The Instagram age and social media is bringing new life to cities through pictures that didn't really exist for outsiders before."

The honeycombed veil of the Broad Museum, for instance, has become a favorite background for people to selfie themselves up against.

Kimm says designers now consider how a building's placement or designated photo-op "stations" affect the way it looks on social media and, by extension, to the world.

"We are subconsciously thinking about how spaces can be reduced down to the scale of the person," she says.

The new Roberts Pavilion at Claremont McKenna College is one project by Kimm's firm, and the exterior was created with design in mind. Because it's so huge, however, it's hard for people to capture on film in a selfie.

The exterior of the Roberts Pavilion at Claremont McKenna College, which officially opens in a few months.
John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects

Inside, however, is a graphic, textured wall that's smaller and allows both the design and people's faces to be clearly seen on camera – and Kimm thinks it will be more social media-friendly.

"It might well become the identifier for the building," she says, "more so than the objectified exterior which you can't capture in a selfie or photo of a person or group up close. "

A wall inside the Roberts Pavilion at Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College

As Los Angeles builds ambitious buildings and public works projects, how it looks to the world will be defined by selfie-ready architecture.

"The city is less abstract, now, because we can get to know a city through the millions of images online that don't necessarily have to do with landmarks," says Kimm.

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